Getting excited to start my season!

Hi all! I've not posted recently, mostly due to not getting up to anything interesting, but I'll do a quick overview of what we've been doing in the past month while getting ready to start eventing!

So we had our second BD outing at Vale View, where I did my first affiliated Novice test. Funnily enough, I scored better at Novice than I have so far at Prelim! However, I am finding that my scores are mediocre and I don't necessarily find that it boosts my confidence in our dressage ability. It's definitely doing her good to get out and do dressage in different environments, and it can only help us in the long run. We scored 62.92% for third in the prelim, and 65% to win the Novice . I was so pleased with her, she really tried hard and she didn't put a foot wrong the whole day!

In mid april we went for a showjumping lesson with Beatrice Stocks, who I would highly recommend to anyone in the S. Yorks area. I had a dressage lesson last year and was really impressed, but then Emmie got her ulcers and I was hesitant to travel her much aside from her vet visits, so we didn't get out much over winter! I decided to book a SJ lesson and Beatrice had us absolutely flying - Emmie felt amazing. We focused on having a good, forward rhythm into a fence and encouraging Emmie to use herself a bit more. One thing that Beatrice did pick up on, and was able to show to me thanks to my Mum taking photos, was that I was folding really early and loading Emmie's shoulders just as she was trying to take off. This was hindering her ability to snap up in front. As soon as I started to make an effort to sit back more and allow her jump to move my body, she got so much better and felt very powerful!

We've got a few things lined up this month, including some water schooling and fitness work at Osberton tomorrow, an arena eventing clinic in a couple of weeks and I might enter up for some dressage (because I feel like I should!) later in the month. Our first event is entered, too - we're doing the UA at Shelford on May 31st. I've decided to only register for a half year with missing most of the early season, so I'll see what more we can get up to in June, ready to start our BE season in July. Exciting stuff! 

Hopefully I'll be able to update soon with a few more of our adventures!